Steve Bowey: "My heart goes out to Wayne"

Ashington FC’s player/manager Steve Bowey said he was ‘devastated and gutted’ to hear that club captain Wayne Buchanan had suffered a double leg fracture in Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat at Hebburn.

The injury occurred just after the half way point in the first half when the defender landed awkwardly. He was carried off the field and taken to hospital where X-rays confirmed Bowey’s fears: “It’s awful news that Wayne has fractured his leg - and I’m absolutely devastated and gutted for him,” said Bowey, “It’s a tough one to take. I can accept defeat but when one of my players - especially one of Buchanan’s calibre - gets a bad injury like this, it hits home. At the end of the day he has got a family and his news is not nice to hear. When Wayne landed awkwardly, there was nobody near him. He heard the crack - and we feared the worst - which has come to haunt us.”

He continued: “Put into perspective, we want to win football matches but I don’t want players to get injured the way Wayne has done tonight and my heart goes out to him. We will be trying to put a performance in for him against Knaresborough Town in the extra qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday because Wayne is one of the most popular players in the dressing room. He is going to be a massive miss for us on the park - but knowing ‘Bucks’, he’ll be around the changing room and will be wanting us to do really well.”